Transient Hamiltonian chaos in the cavity electrodynamics

We consider the chaotic dynamics of the interaction between an ensemble of two-level atoms in a high-Q Fabry-Perot cavity with a single mode of self-consistent field and with an external amplitude-modulated field. It is shown that in the case of an exact atom-field resonance and at the initial population of the atomic ground state, the Hamiltonian chaos in the system is always transient. The differences in the chaotic dynamics for the Fabry-Perot and ring cavity geometries are considered. The conditions for the experimental observation of the transient Hamiltonian chaos are discussed.